Saturday, February 1, 2025

Join the Fight to Save Our National Forests!

My name is Hans Erdman, and I am a retired park ranger, Patrol Chief Emeritus of the Minnesota and Wisconsin volunteer Backcountry Trail Patrol Association, host of the Old Ranger’s Backcountry podcast and a number of blogs, pages, and other conservation related presence across social media. I am also a proud United States Forest Service volunteer and have been for the past thirty-five years, even while working as a career park ranger for other agencies.

Today, February 1st, is the 120th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture, by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. I am posting this short message today, not just because of the Forest Service anniversary, but because this year, possibly more than any year since, our national forests, grasslands, and even our national parks are under attack. They are under attack from the same forces that Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot sought to protect our public lands from in 1905.

I am a life-long conservative, by every definition of the word. I am not a Republican nor a Democrat, but I will always vote for the person, regardless of affiliation, who most closely supports the things that I believe in. Do not even dare to accuse me of being anything but conservative. I was supporting Ronald Reagan when most of today’s legislators were still in diapers back in 1968. But I am also a conservationist and have been so even longer, when I decided my goal in life was to become the career that I lived and loved for twenty-six years as a Ranger. And I also believe that our government at both the state and federal level has become too big, too unwieldy, and too intrusive in our daily lives. It has also become too expensive for its own system to support. That much I can agree on with those who were attacking our public lands, however there is a group in Congress that is using the new administration’s push to reduce government spending as justification to gut our land management partners, specifically the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. During the first Trump administration, the same representatives from Utah and other Western states attempted to eliminate the division of law enforcement and investigations within the Forest Service, and even in the past month the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against another Utah-based lawsuit that tried to force the BLM to transfer the lands it manages in the beehive state to state control. These attacks have continued, and they always seem to originate with the Utah and Nevada delegations.

Our public lands in the United States are a unique and incredibly special heritage. No other country in the world has lands that are owned by us, the public, and allows access to those lands like our country does. Our national forests and grasslands comprise of 193 million acres that contribute over thirteen billion dollars to the national economy every year from forest visitors alone. Over 20 percent of our nation’s clean water supply comes from the more than 400,000 lakes and 60,000 miles of rivers and streams on national forest land. Most of those nearly 200 million acres are open to hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, bicycling, ATV riding, horseback riding, and myriads of other recreational opportunities. The Forest Service provides, excuse me, provided 7400 seasonal jobs that contributed to the local economy until last year when Congress drastically cut funding for seasonal employment. This argument of trimming the budget is a thinly veiled disguise. Their real intent is to eliminate both our public lands, and the agencies that manage so that they can be supposedly managed better by the respective, and most frequently western, states. Of course, those states do not have the budget, the manpower, or in many cases the training or desire to do so, and failing that, they would be forced to sell to the highest bidder. That is who these champions of budget reduction actually represent, those “highest bidders.”

Representative Emmer, for twenty-six years I worked as a park ranger in your district. Representative Stauber, I live in your district and have voted for you every time you’ve run for Congress, but if you choose to take sides with those who would steal our public lands and our unique American Heritage of wild and public places from us, I will add my voice to those who oppose you. In 1984 I stood toe to toe with Governor Mario Cuomo when he tried to cut New York State’s Forest Ranger force, which I believe is one of the finest forest protection agencies in the world, in half because his downstate advisors told him they weren’t needed anymore. We won that battle, and, now as then, we’ll win this one.

I leave you with my favorite quote from one of my conservation heroes, the first chief of the United States Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot; “Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.

We are the greatest number. Contact your members of Congress, contact your senators. As the song says, “This land is your land, this land is my land, this land was made for you and me.” Without your help, this land won’t be yours or mine or our grandchildren’s in the long run, if we don’t act now.

To paraphrase Smokey Bear, “Only you can protect our forests!”

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Remembering "Ride Across the Rez"

 On August 28, 1804, the Corps of Discovery first met the Yankton (Ihaƞktoƞwaƞ Dakota Oyate) Sioux, meeting with them on Calumet Bluff, opposite the present-day city of Yankton, SD. It was that meeting that was the impetus for the next four years of outreach along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

This video epitomizes the mission statement of St. Brendan’s Traveler’s Missions: "Dedicated to the adventure of Missionary Exploration, to the ends of the earth." Following the trail of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and inspired by the book, "Ride the River" by Dr. Larry Christensen, we have traveled to the Dakota and Lakota Indian reservations of South Dakota from 2009 to 2012, doing helps ministry, and prayer/fund-raising "Ride Across the Rez" bicycle rides. Still photos were taken all three years (plus our trip to Russia in 1997), and video was shot during the 2010 and '11 Rides Across the Rez. Music by a local Native American Christian group, "Risen Warrior" from Wagner, SD, on the Yankton Dakota Reservation, with permission.





Tuesday, September 17, 2024

First Ever Lewis and Clark Expo!

 And we'll be there...if nothing prevents!


The National Park Service's Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail presents to you the first, Lewis and Clark Expo! This expo is a FREE family friendly event that will host several organizations. Highlighting this event, the Lewis & Clark Discovery Expedition of Saint Charles, Missouri is bringing a one-of-a-kind replica Keelboat and their team of dedicated reenactors to the Omaha Riverfront. This full-scale replica Keelboat is based on the drawings by Captain William Clark and has been showcased in several films, documentaries, and televised miniseries. The reenactors will be teaching heritage through living history, recreating the buckskin and uniform dress of 1804, sleeping under canvas, cooking over campfires, and so many more educational demonstrations. This fun and educational event will include several free exhibits, demonstrations, and entertainment from a number of organizations including the National Park Service.

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Ride the River: The Candidates


 The Candidates

When you Ride the River, a relationship with God the Father, with Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit can be clearly established, maintained, and deepened. What is missing or deficient can be made up.

Lewis and Clark had no lack of candidates for the Voyage of Discovery. According to Stephen Ambrose, a sense of sheer excitement spread through the country west of the Allegheny Mountains when the news of the expedition became known: “what young frontiersman could resist such an opportunity? It was the ultimate adventure.”

Before the two captains met in the Indiana territory, each of them began to interview candidates for the expedition, subject to the approval of the other. At one point Clark wrote Lewis that several “gentlemen sons” had applied to him. He declined to accept them; they were not prepared for the discipline that the journey would require. Lewis wrote back, “I am well pleased that you have not admitted or encouraged the young gentleman you mentioned. We must set our faces against all such applications.” This was no expedition for dabblers thinking to add a touch of adventure to their lives.

The men chosen for the Voyage of Discovery came with a variety of talents and skills, but they had one thing in common: they were ready to follow Lewis and Clark into an unexplored wilderness.

The call to become a Christian has never changed, it is the same today as it was when Jesus walked the roads of Galilee. To any who would become his disciples, he says “Follow me.”

 

Luke 9:23-27 FNV

“If you want to walk the road with me, each day you must also be ready to give up your own life and carry your own crossbeam with me to the place of ultimate sacrifice. The ones who hold on to their lives will lose them, but the ones who are willing to lay down their lives for me and my message will live. How will it help you to get everything you want but lose what it means to be who Creator made you to be? Is there anything in this world worth trading for that?

If anyone is ashamed of me and of my teaching, then the True Human Being will be ashamed of them when he comes in his bright-shining greatness to be honored by the Father above and all of his Holy Spirit-messengers.

I speak from my heart, there are some of you standing here with me today who, before you cross over to death, will see Creator’s could road.”

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Riding the River is Hard Work!


Riding the River is Hard Work!

Riding the River requires discipline, courage, and persistence. It is no accident that the Bible speaks often of the need for endurance. The temptation is always at hand to stop, build a cabin by the Riverside, and settle down, rather than follow the river to its headwaters.

How do we overcome this temptation? More than anything, it depends on the presence and leadership of our divine Captains. Our own resolve and good intentions might get us part way up the river. For the expedition to fully succeed, the captains must be in charge.

As Christians today, we need to be on guard that the forceful experience of the early church does not shrivel into a historical memory or a lifeless system of intellectual beliefs. That would be like members of the Corps of Discovery Heading upriver with nothing more than anecdotes and lecture notes from Lewis and Clark. In the day-to-day business of riding the river their captains would be a memory rather than a presence.

 Ephesians 3:11-13, 16-17 FNV

This good story gives full meaning to the ancient purpose he planned before he created all things. This purpose has now been made clear through the Chosen One, Creator Sets Free (Jesus). Our trust in him opens the way and gives a strong heart to move close to the Great Spirit. So do not become weak of heart when you hear about how much I am suffering for you, which is proof of your great worth.

My prayer for you is that from the great treasures of his beauty, Creator will gift you with the Spirit’s mighty power and strengthen you in your inner being. In this way, the Chosen One will make his home in your heart.


 

Monday, August 5, 2024

"We Proceeded On..."


 

 “We proceeded on.”

Before Lewis and Clark launched their expedition, there had been considerable talk about exploring the Louisiana territory and even a few attempts, but none successful. Lewis and Clark turned talk and speculation into a victorious experience. Their expedition replaced the “pipedream” of a northwest passage with firsthand knowledge of the vast new territory that had been added to the United States.

For the 4 months (after leaving Fort Mandan, near the current location of Bismarck, North Dakota) the Corps of Discovery traveled through country of breathtaking beauty, teeming with game. Lewis wrote, “the country on both sides of the Missouri continues to be open, level, fertile, and beautiful as far as the eye can reach.” They encountered herds of buffalo numbering in the tens of thousands. They had some encounters, and a few close scrapes with grizzly bears. They managed an exhausting portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri.

In much of contemporary Christianity the focus is locked in on people and their needs. Churches are encouraged to be user-friendly; “Tell us your needs. Bring us your problems. Let us show you how God can bless you.”

Having one’s immediate needs taken care of, however, is not the primary focus of Christian discipleship. Jesus said, “To walk the road with me,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to his followers, “you must turn away from your own path, and always be ready to carry your cross with me to the place of ultimate sacrifice.” (Matthew 16:24 FNV) when Jesus took up his cross, he followed his Father’s will, unto death.

Under the leadership of Lewis and Clark, personal needs and concerns never detracted from the primary focus of the expedition, which was to complete the journey assigned by President Jefferson. In the summer of 1805, Clark wrote, “All appear perfectly to have made up their minds to succeed in the expedition or parish in the attempt. We all believe that we are about to enter on the most perilous and difficult part of our voyage, yet I see no one repainting; all appear ready to meet those difficulties which await us with resolution and admirable fortitude.”

Similarly, you are to discover – and to follow with determination – the plan that God has set out for your life: to become the person he has created you to become and to do what he calls you to do personal needs and problems find their place in relation to this central purpose.

One remarkable phrase, recurring over and over in the Lewis and Clark journals, tells perhaps as well as anything why the voyage of discovery succeeded: “We proceeded on.”

 

The Message of the Good Road: Mark 1:14-15 FNV

Then later, after Gift of Goodwill (John) was arrested, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) traveled to the territory of the Circle of Nations (Galilee) to tell the good story.

“The time has now come!” He said to the people. “Creators could road is right in front of you. It is time to return to the right ways of thinking and doing! Put your trust in this good story I am bringing to you.”

Sunday, August 4, 2024

The Plan; Our Life Journey


The Plan; Our Life Journey

In our life journey, the unexplored wilderness of Western America in the early 19th century represents the undiscovered possibilities that lie before us in life. With the Louisiana Purchase, at least on paper half of the West belonged officially to the United States, though no one knew for sure exactly what President Jefferson had bought.

In our life journey, the Louisiana Purchase represents the life of an individual person and God’s claim upon that life. Jefferson named Meriwether Lewis, together with another experienced military officer, William Clark, to head up an exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.

In our life journey, Jefferson, Lewis, and Clark represent divine leadership: the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ the son, and the Holy Spirit. The commission of President Jefferson represents life plan that God has for each person. Each one of us has a particular River to Ride.

In our life journey, the experiences dangers, and adventures that the Corps of Discovery encountered along the way represents challenges, difficulties, opportunities, decisions, joys, and sorrows that we meet along the river of God’s will for our life. The Indians that they met represent people or situations we encounter that play a role in God’s plan for our life. Sacagawea and Charbonneau, like fellow members of the Corps of Discovery represent people to whom we are more closely drawn who share significantly in our life journey.

 

Matthew 10:5-13 FNV

Instructing His Message Bearers

Before Creator sets free (Jesus) sent out his twelve message bearers to represent him, he gave them these instructions:

“It is not the time to go to the outside nations or to the villages of the people of the high place (Samaria). Instead go to your own people-the lost sheep of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).

“This is what I want you to say to them: Creators’ good road from above is close. Reach out and take hold of it! Heal all who are sick, cleanse the ones with skin diseases, raise the dead, and force evil spirit out of people. Give away the things I have given to you and ask no price for your service. Take no trading goods with you or coins for your money pouches. Take no traveling bundle, moccasins, or extra clothes to wear, not even a walking stick, because the ones who work hard and the harvest fields deserved to be fed and cared for.”

“Whenever you enter a camp or village, find an honorable person who will give you lodging. When you come to their dwelling, greet the family with respect. If they are people of honor, your greeting of peace will rest on them.”